Top Shiite cleric assures Iraq’s Sunni-backed bloc of inclusion in new government, reps say

Iraqiya: Top Shiite cleric calls for unity

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric assured leaders of the Sunni-backed coalition that narrowly won the March election that no group will be excluded from the new government, representatives of the Iraqiya list said Sunday.

The 83-year-old Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is revered by Iraq’s majority sect and carries great weight with the country’s Shiite politicians, who have dominated the Iraqi government since the U.S. invasion in 2003 that overthrew Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime.

“Al-Sistani stressed national unity and … the importance of forming the government as soon as possible,” said Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who heads the Iraqiya coalition.

Speaking to reporters in Najaf after the meeting, Allawi said the cleric emphasized the next government should serve the people without “excluding and marginalizing any group,” in an apparent reference to the minority Sunnis, who have felt politically sidelined since 2003.

Al-Sistani also told Iraqiya leaders that he has “no veto” on which politicians serve, said a senior Sunni politician with Iraqiya, Tareq al-Hashimi.

Allawi’s list won the March 7 vote by two seats over Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite-led coalition. Neither bloc won a majority to form a government, although al-Maliki has come close by joining forces with another Shiite coalition. Allawi insists his bloc should get the first crack at forming a government.

Al-Sistani’s office declined to comment on Sunday’s meeting. The cleric’s opinion on political matters is often sought by Iraqi political leaders across the spectrum. Other influential figures in Iraqi politics, such as the U.N.’ representative in Iraq, also seek his counsel, but al-Sistani rarely intervenes openly or comments publicly on Iraq’s political process.

In an interview with the London-based newspaper Sharq al-Awsat, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is a Kurd, said the Shiite clergy in Najaf and in neighboring Iran have been pressuring Iraq’s Shiite politicians to unify their positions and work for national unity with Sunnis and Kurds.

Iraq’s two powerful Shiite blocs this month formed an alliance that is just four seats short of a majority needed to form the government, but the coalition’s members cannot agree on who should be the next prime minister.

“Pressure to unite the Shiites is coming from the Shiite religious leadership in Najaf and Iran,” Talabani said in Sunday’s interview with the paper.